The present invention relates to a processing apparatus in which photosensitive material or sheet-like material is processed using processing solutions for development processing of a photographic film, print, etc., or a photosensitive printing sheet, heat sensitive sheet, etc., or fixing processing, stabilizing processing of them. Specifically, the present invention relates to a processing apparatus in which a sheet-like material or photosensitive material is rapidly processed.
Conventionally, dimensions of a development processing tank are inevitably increased so that the photosensitive material can be satisfactorily developed, in the same manner as a processing apparatus such as a development processing apparatus for photosensitive material, for example, so-called automatic developing apparatus.
FIG. 12 is a central sectional view showing the outline of the internal structure of a general automatic developing processor of photosensitive material. In this case, the apparatus has many conveyance rollers and a long conveyance path, so that the apparatus becomes larger.
In FIG. 12, the conveyance path of photosensitive material 2 is shown by a one-dotted chain line in a deep processing tank 100. Many conveyance rollers R for conveying the photosensitive material are arranged along the conveyance path. The photosensitive material 2 is vertically conveyed being disposed between conveyance rollers R as shown in the drawing.
Conventionally, in the conveyance direction, the number of conveyance rollers which are in contact with the conveyed photosensitive material 2 is increased in order to eliminate uneven processing and uneven development so that a surface inhibiting layer on the surface of the photosensitive material 2 is destroyed by the surface contact of the conveyance rollers R with the photosensitive material 2. Therefore, the development processing speed of the photosensitive material 2 is increased, so that the processing efficiency is enhanced. Further, the length of the conveyance path is increased so that the development is completely conducted until delivery of the photosensitive material 2.
Specifically, when the photosensitive material is processed, the inhibiting material is generated accompanied with processing reaction of the photosensitive material, and the inhibiting layer is formed on the surface of the processed photosensitive material. Accordingly, fresh processing solution (processing solution which can conduct development processing) is not supplied onto the surface of the photosensitive material, so that the speed-up of the development processing is limited. Also in development processing, fixing processing or other processing, or in a recording medium recorded by heat, etc., such as the photosensitive material, even when the processing solution is supplied onto the recording surface in chemical processing to visualize a formed latent image, reaction product material remains on the surface and obstructs the next processing, which is a problem not only for the photosensitive material but also for other materials.
Accordingly, in order to solve the foregoing problem, a long conveyance path is provided in a deep processing tank, and the development processing is promoted by the following processing: the surface inhibiting layer, which remains readily on the surface of the photosensitive material during the conveyance, is destroyed by frequent contact of the conveyance rollers and removed. Accordingly, the number of the conveyance rollers is increased, resulting in an increase of size and cost.
In contrast to this, in the automatic developing apparatus shown in FIG. 12, the speed of liquid flow is increased so that the speed of development processing is enhanced. However, there is an occasional case in that nonuniformity occurs on an image. In this case, the quality is lowered so that an acceptable product can not be obtained, which remains as a problem. Further, the following processing has been tried: the direction of flow of the processing solution in the processing tank is directed almost perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the photosensitive material so that the processing speed can be enhanced. However, in these trials, the resultant synthetic flow speed on the surface of the photosensitive material, factors of which are the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material and the flow speed of the processing solution in the automatic developing apparatus, is at the most 40 to 60 mm/sec because the image quality is considered to be the most important criterion. However, satisfactory image quality can not be obtained, so that improvement of the process is still necessary.
Specifically, in a small-sized automatic developing apparatus, unevenness of the speed of the liquid flow easily occurs and the image quality is affected thereby, and as a result, it is necessary that the number of roller faces (the number of contact faces of conveyance rollers) is increased in order to maintain the image quality. Even in the case where liquid flow is provided laterally to the conveyance direction of the photosensitive material, a satisfactory image quality can not be obtained because this liquid flow is provided from one side. That is, a difference of the speed of the liquid flow is caused between the outlet and the inlet in the flow speed distribution of the development processing solution which flows laterally with respect to the conveyance direction of the photosensitive material; the processing solution tends to remain on the inlet side; and a difference of concentration of the developing solution results, so that the entire surface of photosensitive material can not be evenly developed.